Go ahead and make fun of his name. He won't get it and he'll kill you anyway.

Tankor is the brute force part of Megatron's first trio of Vehicon generals and commander of the powerful Tank Drones. He's slow, simple-minded and immensely powerful. Lovably dim, his limited intelligence can be a drawback; he can easily be confused, misled, or even turned against Megatron, though temporarily. However, this is balanced out by his natural state of blind frustration and destuctive rage, which makes getting him to listen to any cajoling a less than simple task.

Tankor is in actuality a programmed shell personality given life by the spark of the MaximalRhinox.

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

When the Maximals returning to Cybertron from the Beast Wars were infected with Megatron's virus, Rhinox was not as lucky as most of his comrades. While the Transmetals were able to stay mobile for a time, Rhinox was immediately paralyzed and overtaken by Tank Drones. His spark was forcibly removed and stored in a canister in Megatron's citadel.

When Megatron found that he needed underlings to properly control his Vehicon armies in battle, he used Rhinox's spark to power his tank general Tankor. He reasoned that if the Maximals discovered their new enemy had once been their close friend, they would be less willing to fight him. Unfortunately for Megatron, Tankor was only marginally more intelligent than the mindless drones he was created to lead. Meanwhile, Rhinox's spark/consciousness remained intact inside Tankor, albeit unable to act.

The Maximals attempt to reach into Tankor's Spark.

“

Say it ain't so. Tankor, is really our old buddy Rhinox...

”

—Rattrap makes the horrible discovery.

True to Megatron's expectations, the Maximals did attempt to reach Tankor's spark, and they discovered his true nature. They woke his spark, but the Rhinox they got was not the Rhinox they expected. Tainted and embittered by his time inside Tankor, Rhinox rejected the Maximals and embraced Megatron's plan for a "peaceful", technologically-pure Cybertron, only with himself at its head instead of Megatron.

Tankor-Rhinox immediately began plotting against both Megatron and the Maximals. He caught and reprogrammed one of Megatron's Diagnostic Drones, forcing it to work for him. He found the Oracle and, using the Diagnostic Drone, retrieved the Key to Vector Sigma from within. He then faked his own death and attempted to manipulate Megatron into firing the key on a planetary scale. This would have killed all the organics, including the Maximals and Megatron, leaving Tankor to rule a pure mechanical world. Tankor's manipulations failed when he tried to attack Megatron, and a provision against doing so, hard-wired into his programming, shut him down. Due to Tankor's manipulations, however, Primal opened the Plasma Energy Chamber and Megatron fired the Key. The ensuing clash of energies destroyed Tankor's body, and his spark joined the Matrix.

Primal met Rhinox's spark one last time within the Matrix, where Rhinox expressed regret over his recent actions.

Note:Tankor-Rhinox acts much like the temporary Predacon-ized version of Rhinox seen in Beast Wars. It has thus been speculated that it may be similarly the result of awakening Rhinox's spark without shutting down the Tankor shell program. This is supported "in-show" by the imagery of Rhinox and Tankor fused at the waist into one spark, apparently struggling and in pain. The Beast Machines story editors opined that they believed Rhinox was totally free when he chose this path, though that seems less in-character.

Universe CD-ROM

"TANKOR RAAAAAAAAAPTURED."

On an alternate Cybertron, Tankor fought alongside the DecepticonsObsidian, Razorclaw, Reptilion, and Blackarachnia against Optimus Primal and his Autobots. One of these battles - the most violent of that year - was interrupted by a mysterious ship that sucked those Decepticons up on beams of light and sped away. None of the combatants realized that it was taking its captives to Unicron for use in a massive army. Universe CD-ROM

Note:This comic shows no signs of being intended to mesh with other Universe fiction. There are inconsistencies in many of its elements, but given that Universe is entirely ABOUT alternate dimensions, it could still be a side note to the greater storyline. Tankor is one of the fewcharacters who could conceivably be the same ones who show up in the main Universe comic, but it is up to the reader to decide if that's the case.

3H Universe comic

In a parallel universe, the Predacon Megatron "decimated" Cybertron's population by capturing their sparks.[1] (It is unknown whether this literally means he only got one-tenth of the Cybertronians.) Tankor served under him, a veneer of dumb, brutish loyalty secretly concealing his actual dumb, brutish loyalty to Obsidian. It was at the latter's bidding that Tankor terminated Megatron, allowing Obsidian to supplant the Predacon's rule with an iron-fisted tyranny of his own. Tankor became the enforcer of this new regime, knowing no purpose but the destruction of all that stood before his master. The pair put down uprisings and held the planet in fear, until Unicron decided that such a mindset would serve his own purposes, and he pulled them out of their universe entirely.[2]

Unicron, his ruined form trapped between dimensions, sought to revitalize himself by pitting abducted Transformers against each other within his own body, absorbing their energon radiation and, eventually, sparks. But Tankor was spared this fate, instead overseeing the deathmatch arena along with Obsidian, Razorclaw, Reptilion, and Striker. Silverbolt, one of the intended victims, recognized Tankor. Obsidian confirmed the familiarity, but noted that in his and Tankor's own timeline, Silverbolt had "died screaming". Abduction

For all his accomplishments, Tankor still did a pretty crappy job of keeping Optimus Primal from freeing Silverbolt and dozens of other captives. Escape Notably, by this time Tankor's allegiance was "Decepticon",[2] though it's unclear if this had always been the case, or for how long. In fact, there is no particular sign that he shared his alternate incarnation's Maximal past at all.

Fun Publications Cybertron comic

Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!

In the final battle of the Universe war, Rhinox defeated this Tankor, presumably redeeming his actions as his own universe's Tankor. Revelations, Part 2

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Dawn of the Autobots: Windblade

Tankor, aka, "fat Tankor" (but not to his face) is a regular patron of Macadaam's Old Oil House along with his Friend, another Tankor' aka! "tall Tankor".

When Windblade travels to the bar to ask its patrons what they thought of Starscream, he agrees with tall Tankor that the ex-Decepticon never risked his own hide. Winblade #1

Tankor later joined the team Windblade put together to travel deep inside Metroplex to reveal what Starscream had been doing to the Titan. They were ambushed by the Predacons and he took part in a brief fight back. Along with the others, hew was captured by Starscream and imprisoned! before being eventually freed by Chromia and Sky-Byte. Windblade #3

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Toys

Beast Machines

Tankor (Mega, 1999)

Part of the first wave of Beast Machines product, Tankor transforms into a large Cybertronic tank. Aside from a spring-loaded missile launcher, he also features a light-piped "scanner eye" on his turret, and twin sawblades that spin via gear-wheel system when his tank mode is pushed along. In robot mode, all of these gimmicks are retained, though the "scanner eye" is this time in his robot head.

Despite all of these features, the toy and its transformation scheme bear only partial resemblance to the show's CG model.

For reasons unknown, his name was misspelled as "Tankorr" on his instructions.

These are awesome. There should be Tank Drone redecos in these colors.

Tankor (Happy Meal Toy, 2000)

One of nine Beast Machines Happy Meal toys from McDonald's resturants, Tankor transforms into a small Cybertronic tank based a bit more on the show's CGI model. This toy features a fair bit of articulation (about 8 points in robot mode), though some points are more useful than others. His head articulation, for example, is quite nice. The toy also has lightpiping through the spark and missile rack on his belly.

Tankor (Little Red Rooster Meal, 2000)

The Happy Meal toy was retooled and redecoed for release in Australia, through the Red Rooster fast food chain. Aside from the original coloration, this mold was also cast in the colors of the other three molds used by Red Rooster: Jetstorm, Megatron and Rattrap. The retooling involved removing (and plugging up) Tankor's light piping, meaning that his neck is no longer translucent plastic. Due to the softer plastic used to construct him it can be difficult to get Red Rooster Tankor's arms to come out.

Universe

Tankor & Obsidian (Ultra, 2003)

A redeco of the Mega-sized toy with a wacky new color scheme. Seriously. It's wacky.

Beast Wars Returns

Tankor (Basic, 2005)

Japanese ID number:BR-06

Released in the second wave of the Japanese Toys "R" Us exclusiveBeast Wars Returns line (the Japanese name for Beast Machines), Tankor is a redeco of the Basic Tank Drone, transforming into a Cybertronic four-tracked tank. Pressing the spark crystal on his cannon fires a spring-loaded "energy blast" missile. A gear-wheel system on the underside of his tank mode also activates this attack, while spinning his tank barrel in the process.

Generations

Tankor (Deluxe, 2014)

Accessories: Comic

Tankor is released as part of the "Thrilling 30" line of Generations toys. As it happens, he was released around the same time as the Voyager representation do his previous self, Rhinox. He comes with a Pack-in comic that he features in for a few panels.

He is very accurate to his on screen self, featuring his spinning cannon, which fires a missile, and a hidden saw concealed in his forearm.

Merchandise

Robot Heroes

Cheetor vs. Tankor

This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available.

Notes

According to DVD commentary by Bob Skir, Tankor is influenced by the Hulk.

In the show, unlike Jetstorm and Thrust, Tankor's character model has feet, but he obviously prefers to roll on his treads.